Since their modest beginnings as four guys who drove around southern California with their gear in their cars, packing whatever they could steal a space, Cold War Kids have always exhibited two qualities in their music, intense passion and emotional truth. Lithe and percussive, roaring and tuneful, the soul-punk on the Long Beach quartet's first two albums Robbers & Cowards and Loyalty To Loyalty emerged like miniature goth novels. Singer Nathan Willett channeled taut dramas of men on the edge, families in peril, and crises of faith. The musical literature of these four tight-knit friends-Willett, Jonnie Russell, Matt Maust and Matt Aveiro was a sound that augured something bigger, something more universal.